Circularity put into practice

After the introduction from the keynote speaker, there will be two tracks you can attend, with different topics:

Track 1: “Building your journey in the circular economy”

The circular economy impacts multiple aspects of our businesses. It impacts the way we design products, select materials, how we do business and earn money, how and with whom we collaborate, what technology we need to embrace, how our products are repaired, reused, remanufactured, recycled, … How do companies find their way in this complex endeavour? In this track, we share our insights and tips from our experience in the field. Which approaches helped companies to get started and take actions, what concepts and tools did support them, what can we learn from real-life cases?

Track 2: “Materials solutions for a circular economy”

The identification of suitable renewable resources and end-of-life options for materials play a crucial role in improving the sustainability of products, which should already be considered during the design phase. In many sectors, the criteria for recyclability are becoming better regulated in technical guidelines and evaluation schemes. In particular, the more difficult composite materials used in packaging or composite applications remain challenging for recycling. After mechanical recycling, appropriate valorisation routes for the existing mixed material streams should be detected and critical boundaries for applicable compositions can be set. The novel applications for recycled composite materials can be developed as they become incorporated into high-value products by means of appropriate processing. In parallel, quality of recovered materials should be critically assessed and material recovery can be enhanced through novel designs for material interfaces that enhance debonding or to improve recovery yield. Selected work focussing on the recycling of composite materials and coated paper for packaging materials will be highlighted.   

Upon arrival you can choose which track you would like to attend for the day. Afterwards there will be a guided tour through our testing facilities.

Programme                                                                           

• 13:00 – 13:30 Lunch
• 13:30 – 14:00 Keynote speaker: Stein Janssens: Why should your company become active in the Circular Economy?
• 14:00 – 14:15 Pause
• 14:15 – 15:15 Presentations:

Track 1:
14:15 - 14:35 'Building the circular economy without a plan'  - Stefan Milis
14:35 - 14:55 'Simplified LCA to keep you on the circularity track' - Walter Lauwerens
14:55 – 15:15 'Remanufacturing as example of integrated approach'  - Thomas Vandenhaute

Track 2:
14:15 – 14:35 'Recycling of wind turbine blades' - Linde De Vriese
14:35 – 14:55 'Why use biocomposites?' - Wannes Lembrechts
14:55 – 15:15 'Evaluation and enhancing recyclability of coated packaging papers' - Pieter Samyn

• 15:15 – 16:15 Lab visit
• 16:15 – 16:30 Closing presentation
• 16:30 – 17:30 Drink and networking

Join us for ‘Circularity put into practice’ and be a part of the movement towards a more circular economy!

This event will be organised in the context of the COOCK project 'CIRCLE - Remanufacturing as a lever for value creation in a circular manufacturing industry', with the support of VLAIO.